Third-Persons
by FullMoonCat
Summary: Autumn has come at last, and the campers have been sent home to return to their normal lives. At least until next summer. One camper has to come back though, as her parents seem to have ghosted her. Instead of letting Lucy go to an orphanage, they decide to bring her back to the island with an uncertain familial future.
1. Chapter 1

Smooth jazz flowed though the air, the popping and snapping of wood in the fireplace offering complements the rhythmic bounce of the double bass. A soft piano score provided a nice tempo to the piece. The sole occupant of the cabin tapped her foot in time with the tune, her legs crossed on the couch. In place of her usual uniform, she had on a thick sweater with extra long sleeves. In her lap sat a cup of hot jasmine tea, freshly steeped. A fluffy set of sweatpants and a set of cat slippers completed her outfit, leaving her in complete comfort.

The campers had left the day previous to go back to their typical lives. This left the island mostly uninhabited, save for her and the other counsellors. Without the clamoring din that came with the young animals, it was time for the camp to enter a period of relaxation and dormancy. Most of the monsters were ready to hibernate or settle into their apartment for the winter. The witches were prepared to get back into their seasonal hobbies. The cycle of the seasons had shifted hands once more.

Fallen leaves rustled quietly outside, beneath the sound of the stereo or the cracking and popping of the fireplace. Everything was right at last with Susie, and she could return to her life among people her age, maturity, and most importantly, magical ability.

Just as the piano danced all the way up a jazz piece's scale, a phone call cut through the thick atmosphere. The aura of calm was snapped out of existance with the sharp clang of a receiving bell. Susie let out a frustrated growl and stood up, setting her tea on the coffee table. She had just wanted a day of existing. No interruptions, no phone calls, no paperwork. Just a day to herself.

She picked up the phone, answering it curtly.

"Summer Camp Island, we're closing for the season. Can I help you?"

The voice on the other end was not one she recognized, but it certainly got her attention. It was a masculine voice that reminded her of someone she was familiar with, but not quite. It was that usual Midwestern accent, formal yet to the point. They spoke with the seasoned frankness of a professional.

"Hello, Ms. McAllister? We're calling about a particular camper of yours. You sent them back, but there was a complication. Are you free at the moment?"

Susie poofed a chair directly to her side and sat down, tucking the phone to her ear as she then also teleported a notepad into her hands.

"I am now, what's the news?" She said in a serious tone.

After clearing his throat, the man at the other end said. "Though we have done our best to get into contact with their parents, the child you know as Lucy Thompson has unfortunately ended up in a custodial limbo. As far as we can confirm, their mother has been completely unable to confirm her location with us to transfer her back into parental custody, and her father is likewise missing. Looking into it, we found an arrest record for the father, and the mother has since ceased all contact with us."

The expression on the camp counsellor's face went from an annoyed seriousness to somber realization. Something was happening with Lucy's parents that was even more serious than the typical neglectful attitude they had. She adjusted the phone up to her ear again, taking note of what was being said as the person on the other end continued to speak.

"As it stands we can put Lucy into state custody, gather her belongings from her old place of residence and those she has on her, and put her into foster care. There is also the option of returning her to the previous guardian... which is by the paperwork, an Alice Fefferman? Am I pronouncing that correctly?"

The cat's mouth dropped open with a click of her jaw. Alice _had_ been the one to fill out the custody paperwork this year. The forgetful witch had been assigned to just signing her name on all the paperwork requiring signatures this year. She had most likely not stopped with the normal forms, Which meant that Alice would be the one in technical custody of the campers. Susie once again shut her mouth and responded.

"So you're saying that, you'd be willing to allow us to take care of her while the situation is taken care of with her parents?"

The man on the other end of the line replied in the affirmative. "Yes we would. It would save on resources for other fostered children, and we know that Ms. Fefferman, as well as you and a Ms. Spellman, are all certified to homeschool her. Not that we doubt that she'd be able to self-study. She also expressed a very concern over being lonely if put into state care."

Susie's head reeled from this. This was practically the end of her peaceful fall and winter alone with the witches. However... recalling every single time she had ever written a fake letter for Lucy to feel better about herself, she sighed. The idea of abandoning Lucy in a time that was so crucial felt deeply wrong. She had heard plenty of stories about how foster care chewed up and spat out kids. She knew Lucy was tough on her own, but... even so, it'd be wrong to put her to that just because she wanted two seasons of her eternal life undisturbed. The counsellor replied resolutely.

"Alright, send Lucy back. I'll tell Alice about this once I get off the line with you. We'll be out in the early morning tomorrow to pick her up at the docks. Make sure she has any paperwork you need us to sign."

"Thank you Ms. McAllister. Have a good day."

With the click of the receiver, the cabin was quiet. Susie could practically feel her heart beating in her ears. That had been the most benevolent thing she had done in a little while. Hanging her head, she accepted her fate of obligation. She had responsibilities this fall and winter season. Not that she wanted any, though. She was saving one of her campers from a very rough section of her life though. Not fully given her parental troubles, but... at the very least, she could help. Or at least, Betsy and Alice could help.

* * *

The next day dawned bright and early. Betsy was the first standing out at the docks to wait for Lucy. The boat that'd be bringing them was smaller than the usual, but it'd be as easy as quickly picking her up. No paperwork or hiding anything important. They'd given the usual instructions for the island's inhabitants to go into stealth until the boat vanished into the fog over the sea again.

As the sun crept up over the horizon to part the fog, Susie and Alice soon joined their equine friend. They were in their winter uniforms, and Susie had her hair back in her formal ponytail. Each of them exchanged looks of silent anxiety. None of them really knew exactly what would happen once Lucy was back again. There was the distinct possibility that Lucy might end up stuck with them all winter. Thankfully homeschooling existed and Lucy was already decent at it, but they really had no idea what to do as far as accommodating her.

Without the other campers there to keep her company, none of them really knew what they'd do to socialize Lucy. They could get the monsters to stay with her, but many of them were going to be hibernating. Only a few would be around at all, and they had plans already. It'd be rude, to request that they drop everything. That left only a few options. Susie or Betsy staying in Heartforde and sending Lucy to school there was one of them, but that seperated the witches. They wanted to spend time together this fall-winter season, too.

Some form of compromise would have to be set up. That or Lucy would simply have to learn to get along with the witches and their company. They would only resort to that if the other options didn't play out.

Just as the sun began to clear the fog off the water, they heard the telling rumble of a boat's engine cut through the silence. Their quiet pondering was interrupted by the sound of Lucy's return. Out of the thinning fog arrived a small boat carrying just one passenger, and the driver of it. Lucy sat with her suitcase beside her in the back seat, staring out at the island.

The engine cut a fair distance from the island, and the pilot expertly brought the boat right up to the dock before giving the engine a small tap in the oppossite direction to stop the vessel. Though he looked like a typical seal, it was obvious enough to the witches that the sailor was some sort of magical creature, by his eyes. Lucy disembarked unsteadily, her nonexistant sea-legs causing her to stumble on the wooden pier.

The pilot waved to the witches before reversing out back into the ocean, two-point turning to head back towards the shore. Lucy looked up at the teens with an expression of clear expectation. It only took a moment for Alice to run down the dock towards her, wrapping Lucy in a smothering hug. With all her strength she squeezed the aardvark, bringing her head to rest on the camper's shoulder.

"Oh, you poor thing! I can't believe this all happened. We'll take good care of you okay? Bedtime will be super late, like... ten at night! And we'll watch Gander High together, and..."

Susie stepped between the two just as Lucy began to turn a shade of blue. Lucy gasped for breath, smiling at Alice as she said between gasps.

"Didn't know I was such a big deal to you Alice... Thanks for letting me come back though."

Susie spoke this time, untying her ponytail so her hair fell back into its usual style.

"Don't worry about it Lucy. We have a cabin set up for you and everything. It's actually the one you stayed in during the summer, we just brought it closer to ours."

The camper let out a held breath, scuffing her foot on the wooden boards beneath her. She was somewhat relieved at that, since she had left the furniture in the configuration she liked the most. It'd make moving back in much easier.

"Thanks, but uh... I was wondering something."

Betsy stepped up behind Alice, setting a hand on the elephant's shoulder. Her voice carried with it the most earnest empathy of all of them.

"Ask away, we promise to answer the best we can."

A lull rang out between the four girls. The sound of the waves lazily lapping at the shore, leaving cold brine trails behind it, provided a calm ambience. Lucy shuffled her feet quietly on the wooden pier, tapping her heels on the sturdy wooden boards. With the quiet nearly to the point of drowning them, the aardvark spoke.

"What if my parents don't take me back?"

The smiles the witches were putting on faded. They all exchanged glances, before Alice broke the silence first. She stepped up to Lucy, taking her hands and speaking simply.

"If... your mom doesn't take you back, we get to keep you. I don't think your dad can actually... um, legally, uh..."

Susie decided to cut in, clearing her throat.

"We're your guardians until your mother decides to accept custody of you again. Which she might not, depending on what all happened while you were here at camp. Just, keeping things straight with you Lucy."

Lucy's eyes flooded with worry... and no small amount of watery tears.

"She'll take me back right? Just, after whatever's happening blows over?"

Susie averted her gaze. She was terrible at this sort of comforting talk. Plus, she knew the real truth about how often Lucy's mother wrote to her. Which was close to maybe once a month, nowhere near every week. Betsy chimed in to save Susie from having to answer dishonestly.

"I'm sure things will go back to normal."

None of the witches were holding their breath at a happy ending for this, but it made Lucy feel better. She sniffed, wiping her eyes and standing up straight as she could. She became the Lucy they were used to again, full of stern confidence and a dash of dismissive self-assuredness.

"You're right, it'll all be okay. My Mom loves me a lot, she'll come back for me." She said, then recalled that it was late August out in the northern Atlantic. "Let's uh, go get to the cabins ok? My fingers are freezing."

The walk back to the cabins was a quiet one. Witches exchanged worried glances between themselves, wondering who was going to be the one to explain that maybe... Lucy's parents weren't really going to be back for her. Especially if they learned that she was perfectly healthy, happy and cared for somewhere else. That maybe the parents that Lucy had didn't... really love her.


	2. Chapter 2

Snow piled heavy on the ground outside Betsy's cabin. The witches sat on a sofa under a thick blanket, a fire blazing in the hearth. Lucy read a book beside it, the reflection of the flames flickering in her glasses. Alice had a purple full-body pajama set on with white dots on it, her hat discarded and hanging on the wall beside the door. Susie had on a robe tied tightly at the waist, her hair pulled back into a ponytail because she was feeling lazy. Betsy had her usual braided ponytail with a simple blue nightgown on. Lucy was wearing a pair plush slippers with elephant faces on the front, little ears and trunks sticking out. She was dressed just as plainly as the others. Sweatpants and a sweater had been the choice of the day.

After a while Lucy looked around the cabin. There were no Christmas decorations in there at all. Just a few strand lights adorning the walls, bathing them in a cool white glow. She looked back at the witches, pondering something. Susie caught her eyes first, being the most attentive, so she asked her.

"Hey, Susie." She pondered, looking up at the head witch. "Where's your Christmas tree? And the decorations? It's the twentieth of the month."

The witches exchanged glances with one another. Lucy had no difficulty figuring out that they were trying to figure out which of them should speak, or exactly how to phrase their answer. It was the same glances that she saw her parents give her whenever she asked them a difficult question. Eventually Betsy spoke up, standing with a cup of hot tea in her hands. She walked to her kitchenette as she talked, speaking in a normal and calm tone to Lucy.

"Well, we don't celebrate Christmas you see. We celebrate the Winter solstice, and the New Year. The cycle of nature and time rolling by is what is important to us."

The adopted aardvark looked down at the pages of her book in thought. She had considered that as a possibility, but she didn't know what the exact circumstances were behind their beliefs. After silence filled in a few seconds, Susie jumped in.

"We're pagans. So we don't really do Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Passover, Hanukkah, you get the gist. We celebrate them with the campers if any of them have a holiday during the summer. Y'know, help them not feel so homesick. We personally celebrate the equinox, solstices and Samhain, Yule and so on. You know, the passing of the seasons, the cycle of nature. What Betsy said."

Alice decided she would jump in, sipping her eggnog between sentences.

"Tomorrow we'll go find an big, old dead tree, chop it down and pull out the stump, and use that as firewood. Then we'll have a big dinner to celebrate the last year. Then, we'll take something from the past that's important to us, and we'll throw it into the fire."

Lucy seemed interested in the whole thing, her eyes searching Alice's face like it held more information. She decided she'd ask.

"Okay... well, why do you do that?"

Betsy returned to her seat, deciding to speak over Alice. "Well you see, Yule is partially to honor the things we let go, and the way time passes. What came before. So we'll take something of personal importance that only really exists in the past, and we'll burn it. Just like the old tree in the fire, it has to do with letting go. It also shows how temporary everything is."

The glasses wearing girl replied. "Honestly sounds like this holiday's a bit of a bummer, not gonna lie."

Her comment earned her a laugh from Susie, who stood up. She stretched as she replied, a small pop from her back sounding through the cabin.

"Well, nature's a bit of a bummer kid. Things change, people change. Time flows. By respecting it, you can start to see how it all works. So, we live by the seasons and keep it simple."

The cabin fell quiet as Lucy pondered this method of living. To go by nature, to keep things in perspective. Even as the glasses wearing aardvark turned her attention back to her book, the ideas wore on her. It was so different from what she had grown up by. To run around between sides of the family and friends, getting everyone presents, being grateful for what they had and then receiving more. Decorating a Christmas tree, the hectic energy in the air. In a lot of ways it felt two-faced. Enforcing gratitude on people, receiving gifts when the point was to be grateful for what she had. Christmas was never a good time of year for Lucy on the whole, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt like maybe she wouldn't celebrate Christmas this year either.

This holiday being described to her was much less energetic, but it had a mood to it. One she could see through the witches and how they talked about it. It was important to them. It was a much less tarnished idea in Lucy's mind. Christmas was marred with her family, the same family she hadn't heard from in months. Even before that, Christmas was more a series of obligations for her and her parents. It didn't feel like a genuine holiday, the more that Lucy thought about it. Not in the way she'd been shown. The intentions behind Christmas didn't match with the reality.

She pretended to read again as an idea formed in her head. One that maybe she'd feel better about, afterwards.

* * *

The new moon left the sky dark as Lucy snuck her way out of her cabin. She shut the door as quietly as she could, even though she knew the snow muffled most of the sound outside. She made her way over to Betsy's abode, where the witches had been hosting their Yule dinner. Snow gently fell in twirling flakes around her, dancing on the wind. The well oiled hinges on the door swung open quickly, before she shut it again, moving as quietly as she could in her boots. In her hand she clutched a rolled up photograph, clutched tight in her mittened grip.

Lucy stealthily removed her boots. Betsy was slumbering in her bed, Susie had seemingly gone back to her place from what Lucy could see, and Alice was in a sleeping bag across from the horse witch. Once she saw the coast was clear, she stepped over in her socks towards the fire. It was burning quite low, with the charcoal at the bottom glowing orange beneath tiny licks of flames. Within the ashes littering the hearth, Lucy could see bits of paper, as well as what looked like metal buttons one would sew onto a coat.

The aardvark looked down at her hands, unfurling the photograph awkwardly. Her mittens hindered her dexterity more than she thought, straightening out the creases in the picture. It was a simple photo of her old family. Her father's arm around her shoulder in of her bedroom, with all her things in it. Her mother holding her hand. Outside the window overlooked the city she knew, with the school she used to attend. All the soft moments growing up with them, the little victories, her birthdays. Her breath caught in her throat, gripping the photograph tight in her fist.

Memories came flooding back, but Lucy had already made up her mind. She extended her arm over the fire, took a deep breath, and unclenched her hand. The photo fell just as her eyes clouded with tears. It had been months. Over a quarter of a year since she'd heard anything from her parents. The last thing she knew was her mother running off, her father being in legal trouble for some reason, and then complete silence. She had not heard anything from them since then. No letters, no phone calls, nothing. As the finish of the photo darkened in the flame, she sat down in front of the hearth, putting her head in her knees. It was time to accept that they were gone. She was a smart girl... she couldn't keep believing they'd come back when it was clear they never were.

Over the soft whisper of the flame licking up the picture, Lucy heard a voice. It interrupted her just as she was about to fall into a full sobbing fit, despite her best efforts to be quiet. She turned her head to see Susie, who had been laying down on the couch beneath the covers. Just enough that Lucy hadn't noticed her upon walking in.

"Hey... kid, you okay? Come here." Susie said, sitting up and patting the seat beside her.

Lucy had thought she wanted to be left alone for this, but... after a moment, she stood up. She shrugged out of her coat on her way over, dropping it into a puddle of wool beside the couch. Susie wrapped the blanket around the aardvark as she sat down. She could see the redness of Lucy's eyes, even though she had just started to cry. She looked over at the fire, where she'd seen her drop something, before putting it together. She wasn't about to ask... figuring it was obvious.

For a quiet moment neither of them spoke. The flames finished reducing the photograph to crumpled ash, returning to their dim glow. The moment it was over Lucy turned, hugging Susie and shoving her face against the witch's middle. The cat didn't know what to do... or what to say. Instead of trying to comfort her with words, Susie decided to give the gift that Lucy needed most. Her arms wrapped around the former camper turned adopted aardvark, and she let her head rest on top of hers. She watched the Yule fire go out as Lucy's crying was muffled by her chest. With her mourning stifled by a parental embrace, the fire went out. So passed her first Solstice with the witches, just as the clock struck midnight.

* * *

The next morning Lucy awoke to find herself leaning on Susie's shoulder, holding the cat's hand tightly in her sleep. She had passed out hard after crying for over an hour, and had been dead to the world until late in the morning. On either side of her sat a witch as they quietly watched a crime drama. All four of them were swathed in an extra large blanket. The entire situation felt warm and true to form. The spirit of what was going on was pure in Lucy's heart. The cat felt her stir, looking to see if Lucy was okay after last night. Their eyes met, and they both silently went back to watching television. Both of them understood. It was something to discuss another time, with someone who could word it better. What was important, was that it had happened. Even if Susie couldn't put that to words.

Alice turned up the television, and pointed at the screen.

"This is my favorite part, when it's revealed the accountant was actually the one who did it!" She said excitedly.

With a deep breath, Lucy sat up, still holding Susie's hand. It was a good day.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy sat idly in her favorite reading chair, watching Betsy observe a strange looking globe with lots of rings around it. The witch had been fiddling with it for a while at that point. A notebook full of equations was set next to her as she used a very small screwdriver to nudge a bolt inside of the device. The former camper had only seen things like it in movies or mentioned in books. Without any context, it looked like a normal brass globe with continents, but was hollow anywhere the ocean was. Lots of rings with orbs of metal on them moved around the globe, at least when it worked.

It had been broken for a day or so. The aliens had thankfully been quick to help replace the parts, but Betsy had insisted on repairing it herself. A number of gears were worn to being nearly disks, and she had to wind the coil again. With the help of magic, it would perpetually wind itself for perpetual motion. It needed to start moving to begin the cycle, though. After watching for ages, Lucy witnessed her wind the coil on the base of the instrument, and it began to move. The globe began to rotate on its axis lethargically, and the planets even lazily.

The horse-witch let out a satisfied sigh, then put her tools away. She was getting up to wash her hands whenever Lucy spoke up. She was curious now that she saw it moving.

"So I guess it's like a little planetarium, right?" She asked, looking past the witch.

Betsy thought for a second. It was basically that, however it was a more simplified version. She held up a finger so she could go wash her hands first. Lucy watched and waited patiently for her to clean herself up. Her fingers were covered in the oil used to lubricate the tiny mechanisms, so it made sense that she'd need time to scrub her hands. Once she returned though, Betsy pulled up another chair to the desk, motioning for her pupil to come over.

Lucy shut the book on her lap and set it on the side table. Once she was over there she had a seat, looking around at all the tiny tools that were on display. Minuscule screwdrivers, wire cutters, washers, small tubes of grease and oil sat on the desktop. Most of it was put away since she was done and the device finally worked. The witch pointed at the globe with her wand, a tiny red light appearing on it, like a laser pointer. It focused on where they were, in Massachusetts.

"This globe is sorta like the ones you know about, but it's also a clock, and a calendar." She began to explain.

"Well that's not all too useful, we've got watches and calendars already. And if you've got a PDA, you've got like... both." Lucy commented, feeling like that was a lot of work for not much payoff.

Betsy chuckled and pointed at the circular rings, and the orbs that moved ever so slowly around the model. "Well then let me finish, silly. You're sorta right that we mostly have a great idea of exactly what time it is, and what day it is. But keeping track of the planets is way harder, especially if you live in the city where so much light blocks out the stars and planets. So there's this device... it's got a lot of names. An Armillary sphere, spherical astrolabe, so on. Rather than manually calculate where the planets are gonna be, you wind this thing up, and it goes. If you aren't magic, you have to wind it every day, like a watch."

Lucy observed the way that the planets were oriented around the earth, squinting at them slightly. "But the planets totally aren't actually moving around us though... so, that's not very accurate, right?"

"Yes and no, my young pupil." She said, then pointed at one metallic arm that came out of the side of the device's base. It bent ninety degrees, and at the end was a brass sphere labeled with a dot inside a circle. "This is the sun... and much like the moon itself, we can tell how visible a planet will be to us because of its orientation to us. Whether it's full, waxing, waning, or maybe we can't even see it."

Lucy was no dummy, so she put two and two together in her head. "So... basically, it tells you how much light is reaching earth that's bouncing off those planets? How much we can see them and stuff?"

Betsy reached out and poked the aardvark's nose playfully, nodding. "Precisely, my student. This is extremely important for astronomy and astrology alike. One's a field of science, one's a type of magic."

Lucy figured that she should've guessed it had something to do with the witches and how they did their magic. She'd seen Hedgehog and Betsy training during the summer with symbols relating to the planets. Of course Lucy didn't have that much interest in magic back then, but recently it had really been fascinating her. There was so much lore, history and symbolism to it all. Maybe, she could stand to sit there listen to Betsy talk about it some more. She was about to ask, but before she could, Betsy stood up again, yawning.

"I think I'm gonna turn in, Lucy. You should head back to your cabin, okay? Get the heater turned up again so you can sleep without freezing your toes off."

Lucy continued to sit there, watching the globe turn. After a moment, she stood up to leave. She had a new things she wanted to learn for once. Not just Math, science, geography... but something a bit less rational. A bit more esoteric. A lot less logical. She wanted to learn what magic was.


End file.
